Hi Tony:
I think this is an important topic and will become more so as library
systems move over to Unicode.
I confess to not know too much on the subject, only that when we converted
to the latest version of Aleph 16, our indexing got totally messed up
thanks to the new version's inability to be able to handle MARC21 and
Unicode simultaneously. The problem is with titles beginning with the Greek
feminine article, h(macron)e. The problem has still not been fixed, so you
can have some fun and check our HOLLIS online library system:
http://lib.harvard.edu/
Try doing a browse search for "Ekklesia" and then "Kklesia." Pretty
amazing, huh?!
This happened as a result of Unicode having a single value for e with a
macron. As far as I can tell, Greek is the only language that has a
diacritic in an initial article, and it is only the feminine article. So,
now when we catalog a title that begins with h(macron)e, we have to give
the value of 3 instead of 4 for the second indicator in the 245 in order
for the title to index correctly. This also means that when they are
uploaded into the utilities, they are going out with a non-MARC21 compliant
value. But it seems that Connexion can handle this discrepancy. I am not
sure why. I would urge those who are involved in conversion projects to
take the time to do this clean-up beforehand. We are now waiting very
impatiently for our systems office to fix the problem. I am told it has
finally made "the list" for clean-up projects. It has now been two years...
I hope this information will be useful to anyone about to embark on a
conversion project.
Rhea
Hi:
I am a member of the Yale library's Unicode Interest Group and we
are currently discussing Unicode. I would like to know if anyone else on
the list has any information, thoughts, etc. on Unicode and its
implications with special regards to Greek.
Thank you,
Tony Oddo
===================
Anthony J. Oddo
Team Leader, Arts & Sciences Team/Catalog Department
Sterling Memorial Library/Yale University
(203) 432-7961 anthony.oddo(a)yale.edu
===================
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Rhea K. Lesage
Head and Bibliographer for Modern Greek
Modern Greek Section
Collection Development Department
Widener Library
Harvard College Library
Cambridge, MA 02138
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